Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their radical scientific achievements. Their most astonishing invention: the Firebird, which allows users to jump into parallel universes, some vastly altered from our own. But when Marguerite’s father is murdered, the killer—her parent’s handsome and enigmatic assistant Paul—escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.

Marguerite can’t let the man who destroyed her family go free, and she races after Paul through different universes, where their lives entangle in increasingly familiar ways. With each encounter she begins to question Paul’s guilt—and her own heart. Soon she discovers the truth behind her father’s death is more sinister than she ever could have imagined.

This book has been widely acknowledged as having the best cover in the history of ever.

At the HarperCollins books event, #BTCYA, the publicist (the lovely Amanda Diaz) told us that it was the most-requested book ever. And I am so grateful that I was sent not only an uncorrected proof but THE ONE WITH THE ACTUAL COVER.

So this is what the ARC looks like. Yeah. It’s just black.

Not too exciting.

But I didn’t mind, because guess what?

THE PREMISE IS ALSO AMAZING.

I ended up getting a finished copy in the mail, and swapped this ARC version at BTCYA.

But anyway. Let’s talk about the book.

The concept for this one is absolutely incredible.

The idea is that there’s this device called a “Firebird” which lets you travel between dimensions. There are INFINITE dimensions, with infinite possibilities – some that are very similar to our own, some completely different.

The exploration of these alternate universes was my absolute favourite part of this book.

We experienced…four different worlds. From memory. Yes. We had one with more advanced technology, one very similar to Marguerite’s own world, a historical Russian world and one where everyone lives underwater because of global warming.

I LOVED the historical element in this! It was a lovely change from all the high-tech stuff. Even though it’s set in the same time period as the others (the Firebird only lets them travel across dimensions, not through time), history in that world developed in a different way. So that made things difficult for everyone – pretty hard to communicate when there’s no internet!

There was also lots of SCIENCE.

I hated science at school – thank goodness I don’t have to take it anymore. But the weird thing is that I really love science outside of a classroom situation – space fascinates me. I love reading things about dark matter, about black holes and multiverse theories and all that jazz. Doesn’t mean I UNDERSTAND much of it, but it does interest me. And that was the great thing about this book – it’s understandable but it’s still really interesting to read about.

And yay for having characters who are into science. We need more of them.

Disclaimer: I have no idea how accurate the multiverse stuff is. I haven’t seen any rants about the scientific inaccuracy, though, so I’m going to assume it’s pretty good. But feel free to educate me on that.

This one also has a fair few plot twists.

The whole “is Paul good or is he bad” thing was kind of annoying, though. Just TELL us already. A couple of things did take me by surprise, though, so kudos to Claudia Gray for that.

This is the third book I’ve read by Claudia Gray and it’s my favourite of hers by far.

I read these two earlier this year, and while I really liked how unique they were, they weren’t really my thing.

A Thousand Pieces of You, though, has such an awesome concept that I couldn’t NOT like it. And I can’t wait to read the rest in the series! Though sometimes I didn’t connect all that much with Marguerite, she was a nice enough character that it didn’t bother me.

I’m the same when it comes to science – the whole space aspect with astronomy and learning about the universe even outside a classroom is really fascinating, and so to see it in this book presented in such a creative way made me love the story even more! I liked the plot twists which added that extra something to the already amazing story, and exploring all those different worlds was fantastic. Lovely review Emily, I definitely want to check out more from Claudia Gray soon!

RIGHT? That’s why I love SciShow space. It’s just so super fascinating. There were so many elements to this story. It was great. Now I’m just wondering how the cover of the second book is going to live up to it… 😛

I reeeally want to read it, but I am kind of worried that I’ll fail understanding the science. I am SO not science-y minded (proved by the fact I just said “science-y” I suppose….my bad. xD) BUT THE COVER IS BEAUTIFUL. And it sounds really different and unique. I like that. Plot twists? Sign me up.

OHOHOHO I LOVE SCIENCE BUT I UNDERSTAND NOTHING. The day I dropped anything vaguely science-y was the day that department cheered and partied. Because boy were they glad to get rid of me LOL But I love everything about it, but most specifically genetics. That’s my absolute favourite area. I loved the scientific element to this one as well (but I knew pretty much nothing sooo she could’ve fooled me but who cares :P) I’m glad this one was a hit for you! The different worlds were pretty interesting, weren’t they? Fantastic review, Emily! x

THAT COVER THOUGH! –> <33 *cue the pretty GIF*Anyway…the premise sounds fantastic too! I absolutely love books that have worlds with multiple dimensions or whatnot, and this sounds like it does that wonderfully. It’s interesting how the author set up her dimensions in what seems to be a past / present / future kind of system though.
Definitely going to give this a try! Thanks for sharing and, as always, FABULOUS review! ❤

Gosh I dislike science greatly. I took the most basic science (Senior Science) and I even struggled with that. =/ I’n glad you liked this one! I feel like this is a book I’m either going to like . . . or I’m not. Which is why I AM a little hesitant about reading it, but that cover is gorgeous. I think I’ll probably end up buying it just so I can look at that cover in person ahaha. 😀

I love that this is more than just a pretty cover! I really have to get my hands on it soon! I know exactly what you mean about science. Never gonna do it again at school but I actually really like science. I think my science teachers just suck LOL! I’m curious to see how this book portrays it. 😀

To be honest I wasn’t sure whether I would pick this up or not, BUT INFINITE WORLDS??? (that so reminds me of this video that I recently finished that you probably don’t care about) BUT WOW. My life has been filled with science fiction books lately, so I think that this would be a fantastic addition.

Fantastic review, Em! I loved the science and multi-dimension aspects of this book, too! While I was expecting more, I can’t wait to see where the story goes in book 2 – I feel as though there is quite a few possibilities. And, of course, I can’t wait to see what the beautiful cover will look like!